Hold on, they're coming

Stax Records.

Just saying the name takes you back to Memphis, with Booker T., and Otis, and Sam and Dave, and Isaac, and — well, yeah, there were issues.

Shortly after the death of Otis Redding, Stax's distribution deal with Atlantic came up for renewal, but there was a snag: the previous distribution deal was truly heinous, in that Atlantic wound up owning the entire Stax catalog up to that point. Rather than re-sign, Stax allowed itself to be acquired by the Gulf+Western conglomerate. This was the spring of 1968, and after a slow couple of years, original owner Jim Stewart and peripatetic label exec Al Bell bought Stax back and began producing serious hits again.

In 1972, Bell negotiated a distribution deal with Clive Davis of CBS and bought out Jim Stewart. Shortly thereafter, anomalies were found in the distribution chain, Davis was sacked by CBS, and by 1975 Stax was having trouble meeting payroll. The next chapter was Chapter 7: the remains of the label were sold off to Saul Zaentz' Fantasy label in 1976.

And that's where things stood for the next thirty years. Stax catalog product was still to be had, from Atlantic or Fantasy, but the old studio in Memphis was torn down in 1989, and no new recordings were coming out.

Then in 2004, the jazz label Concord Music bought out Fantasy and with it, Stax; Concord is now ready to relaunch Stax as a working R&B label. Among the first signings for the new Stax were soul singer Angie Stone, who will contribute to the first release, a tribute to Maurice White, and the legendary Isaac Hayes, one of the mainstays of the early-Seventies Stax. A 50th-anniversary box set is promised, so get your MasterCards ready.

Posted at 9:13 AM to Tongue and Groove